Giving up Caffeine
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Day 76: 10 March 2013
Breaking news, I've resorted to buying decaf tea bags (Yorkshire). They don't taste right, somehow, but I'm strangely addicted anyway. And no caffeine withdrawal symptoms, yay...!
Day 67: 1 March 2013
No change, still not perfectly avoiding all real tea. Making up a pot, I've tried just a pinch of real tea with the loose red bush, tastes fine but more than a tiny bit and I still get an unpleasant reaction. Green tea has just as much deleterious impact on me, sadly (I expected this but thought I'd experiment anyway).
Day 39: 1 February 2013
I've decided to just update monthly: so far I am missing real tea too much and keep having the odd cuppa of real caffeine tea despite the inevitable kick later. Tsk Tsk. No real improvement in symptoms over time, but thankfully no effects from chocolate, so that's back on the menu. I seem to be okay with small amounts of alcohol, too, after all.
Day 8: 1 January 2013
I can't find a new home for the few Darjeeling bags so I'll have to drink them myself.No, really. Well, I quite fancied something besides Redbush this morning and it feels so wrong for the Darjeeling to go to waste. Besides, it's an experiment. After plenty of breakfast I had one good size mug. Which hit me about 5 minutes after drinking it down. I think I had a few shakey feelings around 4 hours later. Could be imagining it, though.
Still gently working thru my chocolate Christmas gifts; luckily the children enthusiastically helping to diminish stocks.
DAY 5: 28 December
Hurriedly made a cuppa Red Bush to drink before I dashed out the door at 3pm only to find... I'd put in a black tea bag by mistake (oops). Dithered, do I waste a perfectly satisfactory cuppa and not get a desired warm drink before braving the wind and wet, or just chance insomnia/palpitations/who knows?: I drank it. Instant kick to the heart, or so I imagine I felt. But no palpitations coming off it. And any insomnia I had was probably from eating my last meal of the day so late (9pm).
I moved the tea bags around in kitchen so that I couldn't absent-mindedly make the same mistake again. No Freegle takers for half of my specialty teas, either. Had some lovely red bush with vanilla the other day at friends' house, will trawl Waitrose to see if they sell it.
Ongoing many chocolate nibbles, may take forever to get thru my Christmas gifts.
DAY 2: 25 December
I could have murdered a cup of tea this morning but found the self-control to refrain. In spite of discovering the cat had fleas (EEEEKKK!!) and other trials and tribulations. Indulging in plenty of red bush and fruity teas. Plus some chocolate. So marks out of 10 = 7. No headaches.
DAY 1: 24 Dec 2012
I'm advised that going cold turkey will give me terrible headaches, but I don't believe it since I've had the occasional caffeine-free day recently without problem. I do need to give away some opened boxes of specialty teas, though: Darjeeling, Qi and some Earl Gray. Freegle? There are some chocolate and marzipan logs in the cupboard, too (whinge, don't want to see back of them just yet).
(Later): no tea, no booze, caved and had a bit of chocolate log. No headaches, though.
23 Dec 2012:
I've had caffeine withdrawel symptoms slowly getting worse for the last six or seven years. I've resolved to give up virtually all caffeine, and most sugary foods because they are so bad for my teeth. Plus the only sugary foods I quite like chocolate, which is full of caffeine! On top of that, I'm pretty sure I got palpitations from drinking alcohol a few times, so I'm laying off that for the foreseeable future.